Aleksandra Kurzak: I won’t sing a cock’s Tosca
NewsThe Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak has amplified her withdrawal from next January’s Tosca in Barcelona, along with her husband Roberto Alagna.
But where Alagna’s language was temperate, Kurczak’s was richly imaginative.
She told Polish media: ‘Podpisałam kontrakt na Tosca di Puccini a nie „Pisellini di Pasolini’.
Which roughly means: I signed a contract to sing Tosca by Puccini, not pricks by Pasolini.
The production, by a Spaniard Rafael R. Villalobos, premiered at La Monnaie in Brussels. It involves sex-shop objects reminiscent of the orgiastic Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Well done. More power to her. Let her lead by example.
She was right to withdraw from the production as she is quite clearly unfit to perform in it. She herself declares in the interview referred to above that she is not an actress.
“Jak sama podkreśla — zajmuje się śpiewem, nie aktorstwem.”
How she deluded herself into believing she could deliver a professional performance in the first place is anyone’s guess. Perhaps she is surrounded by a toxic entourage who feed her ego?
She was only ever hired for the role because the Liceu wanted Roberto Alagna as Cavaradossi, not because of her own rather modest qualities.
Whoever replaces her will be an improvement.
You are so mean. Disgusting.
Fantastic on stage. I have shared the stage many times, and she is magnetic. Is she vocally appropriate for Tosca is the more salient question.
Not all Pasolini was “orgiastic.” The Gospel According to Matthew and Teorema were to of the great films of mid-century. Sacred and profane, respectively, perhaps, but brilliant cinema.
The work of Pasolini will be remembered long after the contributions of Kurzak.
I assume she and her husband are providing evidence to avoid legal problems with the Liceu.
The Pasolini selected for this production of Tosca is ‘Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma’. And Tosca isn’t cinema, nor should it ever be. It’s opera.
Sardou may beg to differ, and with more refined language than Ms. Kurzak employs.
What is this, an ‘appeal to authority’ by quoting whoever happens to sport a name with a certain recognition value, and subscribes to your view? Plenty of other, equally famous names, who don’t, but I won’t bore you with them because I don’t need them. Puccini is Puccini, Pasolini is Pasolini, Tosca is Puccini’s _opera_ , not Pasolini’s, the 120 days of Sodoma is Pasolini’s _movie_ , not Puccini’s (and the Marquis de Sade’s novel), and that is that.
My compliments to Sardou. You have my blessing to thumb my reply down, as you have thumbed your own up. Even repeatedly if this is your pleasure.
Indeed, Il Vangelo secondo Matteo won the Grand Prize of the International Catholic Film Office.
Pasolini was complex and contradictory and should not be reduced to his penises.
Kurzak was not characterizing Pasolini, she was describing how Pasolini-inspired imagery was being used in the production, and how she was asked to perform in that production.
I salute V. Lind’s note of the variety of P.P. Pasolini’s films, and his praise of “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” and “Teorema”. I’d point Slipped Disc readers to PPP’s wonderful use of Vivaldi in “Mamma Roma”–wedding vivid drama to an excerpt from a bassoon concerto, and to the slow movement of the Piccolo Concerto in C, RV 443. I am frankly not sure I would find this piccolo music so moving–and live with it as sort of a permanent intermittant earworm 🙂 –were it not for the poignant use of it by Pasolini, and then by Truffaut in “The Wild Child”.
Ha, ha! Brilliant . It’s about time someone stood up to daft directors desperate to make a name for themselves.
Some directors have already made a name, make good money, produce nonsense, and get away with it – except for being bashed in this space when they work at opera houses run by former executives of the recording industry (MET/Gelb, Vienna/Roščić).
Making good money bears no relationship to making good art.
Aleksandra Kurzak had the chance to withdraw from the production with elegance. Instead, she decided to fixate on the nudity which features in it and kick up a fuss, mouthing off in the media. The consequence of her actions is she has ensured the name of Villalobos now goes beyond the narrow confines of the opera world and is published across general classical music media and the internet. Could this be the first time she has actually deserved a “brava”?
Good for Kurzak. A good show to miss.
How many Pasolini films has she watched. He was a genius. Ans nit at all were about debauchery. I can’t think of any set in a sex shop. I have seen them all. Go watch Medea with Callas. Who am sure is an influence to most sopranos. Know your film directors.
idiot remark, that Medea film is a cpt disaster
If you had read more about this cancellation you would have known the Pasolini film referenced in this Tosca production is ‘Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma’. Why should we watch Medea with Callas? Why should we watch _any_ Pasolini? I understand familiarizing oneself with Puccini’s libretto, but not with Pasolini’s movies, prior of attending a Tosca performance. Both names begin with a ‘P’ but I assure you these are different individuals. Lastly, I fail to see why are you so sure Pasolini’s Medea is an influence to most sopranos. You surely recall she doesn’t sing in it? In fact, it’s almost a silent movie.
Know your film directors if you are interested in movies. For singers, it’s know your composers – score and libretto.
Callas and Kurzak occupy different realms of artistic consciousness.
Where Callas could see through to the genius in Pasolini, Kurzak can only see penises.
One sees what one is looking for.
What??? Singing Tosca by Puccini? You mean the real thing? And probably taking place in Italy in the 19th century I bet. That’s borderline fascist I presume…Thank God there are still a few musicians with a spine who stand up to nonsense.
Finaly sombody tells the truth about the crazy, untallented regisers!! She is very brave , cogratulation
She shouldn’t be singing Tosca at all. Meanwhile, in Paris…
https://california18.com/roberto-alagna-will-be-al-capone-in-a-musical-in-paris/4056302022/
She is actually talking about a very stylish production, in which singers seem quite at ease. The Pasolini connection is an interesting angle from which the director configures his own meditation on beauty, cruelty and power. Madame Kurzak s comment is very vulgar. Those ”cocks” are rather in her head /dirty mind.
Perhaps some people don’t want to see the director’s meditations on beauty, cruelty and power, but Puccini’s and his librettist’s meditations? After all, it’s still Puccini’s Tosca, or at least it is sold as such to the unsuspecting masses. If the director wants to meditates about beauty, cruelty and power, with the help of Pasolini’s movie because his own brain can’t produce an interesting enough output without foreign help, let him meditate in a documentary.
How about posting a link to this ‘stylish’ production so we may judge for ourselves?
You can find the video here:
https://www.operaonvideo.com/tosca-brussels-2021-papatanasiu-cernoch-naouri/
Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak are making themselves look like foolish prudes, as well as unreliable singers opera houses should steer well clear of.
Thanks for the link. Kurzak was right there are penises everywhere, and the camera guy loved them, lol. The production didn’t scream ‘obscenity’ to me, it screamed ‘stuck in the 1970’s when nudity was the naughtiest juveniles could think of to annoy middle aged people’. The original ‘art’ of the 1970’s never made it past this weird quest for naughtiness. Today’s directors labor under the misapprehension they are avant-garde. Why are we served up 1970’s naughtiness as avant-garde? Grow up guys. If I am to be stuck in a period, I prefer the one envisioned by Puccini – it has the advantage of not clashing with the music. In short, I wouldn’t file this production under ‘obscene’, I’d file it under ‘boring’ – the director littered it with every conceivable cheap cliché he could think of, from annoying supernumeraries to predictable gender switches to horror movie posters to a surfeit of small penises. Yawn.
And, oh, he got Scarpia wrong. He isn’t a sex addict. In fact, he got most characters wrong, but then this is the predictable formula of such productions, isn’t it? This is called original art in our days. Take something old, turn it upside down, and call it new art. He who can’t create feeds on corpses. The only irregularity is that the corpses smell better.
As to your parting dig ‘unreliable singers opera houses should steer well clear of’ , that was uncalled for and gives us a hint about your personal axe you enjoy grinding here. A singer who cancels seven months in advance isn’t unreliable. Perhaps you’d like to call pregnant women unreliable too? They too cancel several months in advance.
“penises everywhere … a surfeit of small penises”
@guest, what exactly is your complaint, that there are too many penises, or that they are not big enough to your taste?
Behind every prude is a pervert.
My dear Salo.
I so wish you’d read comments first, and hit the reply button only after reading them. First, I have no complaint. Does my comment read as complaint to you? To me it reads like making fun of the stage director’s poverty of spirit & lack of ideas. Second, the main point of my comment was why are we served up 1970’s naughtiness as 2022 avant-garde. Do you need translation from English to English? The penis issue was just a side note, mentioned because this is the point of contention in Kurzak’s statement, and Norman’s post, in case you need a refresher, is about Kurzak’s statement. But nice to see that penises is all you recall from my comment – my dear Salo, if someone is the pervert here, that’s not me. Your moniker is also an indication in what direction your inclinations run.
By now it is all too obvious what this hullabaloo is all about. The original issue was simple enough – performance cancellation announced well in advance, so the opera house had plenty of time to look for replacements. Happens all the time in the business, nothing to see here folks. Both the opera house in cause and the singers have issued clear statements that they have come to an agreement and wished no publicity. But someone else wished for publicity, more exactly for _negative_ publicity for the singers – this someone is Peter De Caluwe, the La Monnaie intendant, who had absolutely no business to comment about an issue between another house (Liceu) and the opera singers they had under contract. But comment he did, and at great length, and no mincing words either. That comment was nothing but one long provocation. This prompted more comments from the singers, and social media began to pay attention. Enter our friend here Antares, who has done everything in his power to stoke the flames in this comment section. He is so omnipresent I wonder whether he hasn’t moved in. I trust you brought your bedding with you, Antares, and sleeping on the floor of the comment section isn’t to hard on your back. Antares also brought a few friends with him, all working very hard to make an issue out of a non-issue. Why? Does he hate Alagna & Kurzak so badly? Possibly. Also possible is that De Caluwe is determined not to allow any dissenting voices for us sheep to turn to in times of doubt. Heaven forbid the idea we are allowed to criticize regietheater should worm itself into our minds. Better nip it in the bud. To this I say he’s at least two decades too late.
I suppose you Salo, and your pal Antares, will indulge in a bit of finger pointing seasoned with ad hominem, and accuse me of being too fond of conspiracy theories. To this I only say Antares should take a look at himself first. Bye boys. This cancellation is a non-issue, and trying to make a mountain out of a molehill just puts ideas into people’s heads, unfortunately for you, not the ideas you champion.
Where you see naughtiness others may see an attempt at meaningful beauty, successful or not (I think it isn’t entirely successful, but that is neither here nor there).
Lebrecht has played us all with his usual clickbaiting schtick. His deliberate choice of the worst possible translation of Kurzak’s words coupled with the seamiest shot he could find of the artist in a see-through top reminds us what his angle is here.
Performance cancellations are three-a-penny. The hullabaloo arose with the odd wording of the Liceu statement, claiming neither Alagna nor Kurzak felt capable of performing in the production, followed by their outrageous and gratuitous attacks on colleagues.
De Caluwe, who had commissioned the production originally, stepped in at this point to defend it. He ruffled a few feathers by suggesting the great fuss kicked up by the divo and his wife might be a distraction, with the real motive behind the cancellation perhaps being more prosaic: the two-timing tenor would have underestimated the rehearsal time needed for the Monnaie production of Tosca, endangering his pet project, the grand musical on Al Capone, which had already been postponed one year.
At this point Alagna goes ape-shit online and the usual suspects attempt to cash in on the brouhaha, with fans and opera lovers taking sides in the tired old debate.
Guest is of course right: the cancellation is a total non-issue. It would have remained that way if Alagna and Kurzak had simply withdrawn quietly from the production and the Liceu had issued a clear statement which did not beg further questions. Alagna has been cancelling appearances for as long as I can remember, even walking out of a run when he couldn’t handle the audience’s reaction to his singing, so one more cancellation would barely have made a ripple. The fact he and his wife actively sought to draw attention to their withdrawal by attacking the production and therefore de Caluwe for commissioning it and Villalobos for directing it points at ulterior motives.
Well, they got what they wanted: attention.
Thanks for the link indeed, now everyone can judge for themselves:
1) Four. Four penises, one of which is in a photo. That’s what we’re raging and raving over? That’s decidedly on the low side in today’s productions, or exactly 1/10 of those appearing in Calixto Bieito’s production of Tristan und Isolde in Vienna.
Much ado about nothing!
2) If Kurzak thinks that her Vissi d’arte can’t compete with 4 penises in the background, then she must know, she’s the best judge of her abilities as a soprano.
All I can say is that Callas is so riveting that you could put 100 bouncing erect penises on stage, not a single person would take their eyes off her.
3) For me, Rafael R. Villalobos’s sacrilege is not the penises, not the naked altar boys (it’s their penises), not the sadistic priests, not the blasphemy, but the fact that he inserts new music into the opera (specifically pop music in the form of a rumba involving a male prostitute) between Acts 1 and 2.
Directors can do what they like, except to fuck with the music. I am very surprised that the conductor allowed this, the music must be the conductor’s exclusive domain.
‘Callas is so riveting that you could put 100 bouncing erect penises on stage, not a single person would take their eyes off her.’
You speak with such confidence in other people’s name, chet. Dare I follow your example? I think Pasolini would have had no trouble to take his eyes off her given the other incentives. Joke aside, you overlook the most important aspect – Callas would have refused to perform under such circumstances. She had her standards. Interesting you bash Kurzak for refusing a production Callas would also have refused.
‘Directors can do what they like, except to fuck with the music.’
Nope. Perhaps you missed the memo in that bubble of yours, but 19th century and most 18th century operas are credited with both composer(s) and librettist(s). On vintage Italian posters/playbills the librettist is actually credited first, the composer second. La Scala still credits in this order.
If some people don’t want to see the director’s meditations on beauty, cruelty and power they can stay home or seek out another opera house. Tosca is hardly underperformed. A fresh look at a familiar work can be exciting and challenging, perhaps even bring a better understanding of the work.
I had a look at it and it is anything but fresh – a truckload of tired clichés so dear to those stuck in the 1970’s.
The management of the Liceu do not appear to be handling this affair particularly well.
“Tosca” is a coproduction with three other opera houses: Monnaie, where it was premiered a year ago, Montpellier and Maestranza. How long can this project have been in the making? When were Alagna and Kurzak signed on by Víctor García de Gomar? Did García de Gomar not tell them about the production? Alagna seems to have found out by surprise, through a concerned friend who went to the trouble of watching the video and then passing it on to the tenor.
Alagna would have us believe he thought he would be taking part in an old production, one perhaps that would require minimal commitment – a bread and butter gig, if you will – and allow him the freedom to concentrate on his real commercial interest in 2023, his Folies Bergère show.
According to prestigious Spanish daily ABC in an article published May 27, rehearsals for Al Capone, the musical in which Alagna will become the murderous, philandering, tax-dodging gangster, would appear to overlap with his engagement in Barcelona.
Was García de Gomar planning to let Alagna off rehearsals for all but a couple of days? That would hardly show respect to the rest of the members of the team working on the show.
We know, because Alagna has said so in so many words, that García de Gomar actually considered scrapping the production and offering him an older – less demanding? – one, an offer which to Alagna’s credit he turned down. What respect would that have shown to coproducers and everyone else involved?
García de Gomar is in a very tricky position. Already neck-deep in a polemic he has clumsily brought on himself with his ill-judged decision to shut the theatre’s entrance arcade off from the Ramblas, which has seen him rightly attacked from all quarters, he has now shown the opera world he is not a man whose word can be trusted.
How long can one of Europe’s oldest opera houses labour on under such mismanagement?
Not to mention that Puccini s work itself is a transgressive masterpiece, in which the aesthetics of power erupts as violently ( orgiastically) as in Pasolini s movies.
Orgiastically only in your mind, Bloom. Read the libretto. And there are no ‘aesthetics’ of power in Puccini’s Tosca – what there is, it’s the act two, very well conceived from a _dramatic_ point of view. There’s a lot of cat and mouse play, culminating in an impulsive murder, with the cat cast in the role of the dead body. Wrong address for people looking for eruptions or orgiastic moments, even in the extended meaning of the word.
It looks like the establishment is pissed and not a little worried. De Caluwe, La Monnaie’s intendant (the house who commissioned the Tosca production the Liceu ‘bought’), all but called Alagna a liar, despite the fact he has no business to mix himself in a debate concerning another opera house, claiming Alagna pulled out of the Liceu run because he is currently involved with ‘Al Capone’ and has a a schedule interest conflict. He descended so low as to take a dig at Kurzak’s physique: ‘being surrounded by some female nudity at Paris Folies Bergères undoubtedly gives him a more joyful prospect than to tolerate Mrs Alagna-Kurzak perform ‘Vissi d’arte’ with a pre-Raphaelite male nude next to her.’ But the most deluded bit in De Caluwe’s diatribe is: ‘Alagna’s fans now have the alternative to see their startenor perform no less than 90 performances portraying a hero with dubious interests in money, crime, tax evasion, machismo and violence. … At least, Cavaradossi can be considered an artist of a certain nobility…’ Nothing was left of Cavaradossi’s nobility in the new Tosca production, or of Tosca’s nobility, for that matter.
Jean-Felix Lalanne, the director of AL Capone, called De Caluwe’s insinuations “bordering on defamation.”
This is, in a way, good news. The establishment is scared. The whole regietheater scam is nothing but a card house. One good blow should do away with it, but singers are too scared or insensitive to point out the emperor has no clothes (and needless to say, there is no emperor, and never was). And some of them are seeing in the scam a means of prolonging their ailing careers – when your voice is in tatters, such a production is a God sent, provided you have a thick skin – the production distracts audiences from the shambles that used to be your voice.
https://operawire.com/la-monnaie-de-munt-intendant-peter-de-caluwe-fires-back-at-roberto-alagna-over-liceu-cancelation/
https://operawire.com/robert-alagna-responds-to-peter-de-caluwes-comments-on-tosca-cancelation-at-gran-teatre-del-liceu/
Well done to her for sticking to her artistic principals that the music matters more than these ridiculous ideas these directors have these days
She has merely been forced to acknowledge she is not up to the job. She could not act to save her life and has had to retreat with her tail between her legs.
There’s a line in L. Hart’s lyric of ” Poor Johnny One Note”: ” ..”while Verdi whirled round in his grave” That works for his compatriot Puccini too.
Oh yes, PPP, the icon of the left, who unloaded all the depths of his sadistic, depraved imagination and then said, oh, it’s not me, it’s the BOURGEOISIE, didn’t you know?
Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing in that photo of hers?
That sheer blouse would make Pasolini blush.
She thinks it sells.
What are you seeing, Mary? I am dying to know. Pray tell.
Pasolini faced charges of indecency and obscenity practically all his life, wrote plays like ‘Orgia’ and concluded his career by directing ‘Salò or the 120 days of Sodom’ after the Marquis de Sade’s ‘120 Days of Sodom’. Now what could make Pasolini blush, I wonder?
Nothing would make Pasolini blush.
I think the photo is meant to undermine any comment of Ms. Kurzak re decency/lack thereof.
Unless there was a penis behind it, Pasolini would never see it.
I don’t believe this for a second.
La Monnaie streamed the opera live last June with a lot of publicity. The recording was available on the opera house’s Youtube channel for some time afterwards and it shouldn’t be hard to find online even now.
It was much talked about at the time. Indeed, some of the publicity prior to the first night was drummed up by SlippedDisc’s unsurprising focus on the nudity revealed in some press photos of the production.
It is impossible that Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak could be ignorant of the nature of the production until only a few weeks ago. The faux outrage must needs hide other motives.
Kurzak and Alagna signed a contract for Tosca with the Liceu, Barcelona three years ago – at that time no one knew about the new co-production with La Monnaie. They only found out about the production change when the new 2022/2023 season was announced in early April 2022 and then watched a video of La Monnaie. They subsequently decided they didn’t want to be in something like that. However, Liceu only announced their withdrawal from the production after they found replacement singers.
The Liceu, according to an article published in today’s ABC, claims otherwise:
«La producción estaba clara y el Liceo detalló a todos los artistas cuál sería a través de sus agentes, enviando el vídeo de la producción de Villalobos»
“The production was clear and the Liceu informed all the artists which one it would be through their agents, sending the video of the production of Villalobos.”
Roberto Alagna has shamelessly bragged on social media about not bothering to rehearse his opera roles for much more than a couple of days. That there is the key to understanding the current scandal. The rehearsal schedule for the Liceu Tosca evidently clashed with his expectations and his preparation for the role of his life as Al Capone at a Parisian cabaret.
That he should have chosen to withdraw so inelegantly and with such mud-slinging speaks volumes as to his true nature.
https://www.abc.es/espana/catalunya/abci-liceo-desmiente-roberto-alagna-202205311001_noticia.html
I fail to see how this announcement clashes with Alagna’s statement. He too said he had watched a video of Villalobos’ production and decided to cancel afterward. He had signed the contract with Liceu years ago for the old production.
As to Alagna’s inelegance, this is as is it may. The opera business conditions audiences to lump it and keep their mouths shut. I find it refreshing when somebody says the pulled out from a production because he didn’t like it. Apparently the powers that be and their online speakers are afraid of critique, to judge from their violent reaction. If anything, this very reaction, prompting more replies from the singers in question, is what attracted attention.
The rest of your comment is your axe grinding and reading of tee leaves. I think your comment speaks volumes about _your_ true nature.
I am no Alagna fan. I find he went steadily downhill vocally. In fact he was in such vocal trouble in a performance some 15 years ago, I thought he was going to retire. But I, unlike you, have no axe to grind, and if a singer says he pulled out of a production because he didn’t like it, and did so seven months in advance, I say it’s his good right.
These supposed statements by Liceu Theatre sent to ABC.es are allegedly false. The Liceu management does not know about them and never wanted to raise any disputes with the singers Alagna and Kurzak, who, according to Liceu, had every artistic right to withdraw from this production of Tosca, moreover so long in advance. Further statements are awaited.
Further statements have been made.
ABC stand by their articles and publish more on the embarrassing affair today. ABC of course quoted directly from statements to the press issued by the Liceu, which has today made a public statement in Catalan and in Spanish which does not dispute the facts as presented by ABC.
Alagna and Kurzak, on the other hand, have thought it convenient to share an edited version of a Liceu statement along with private correspondence. I trust they are being advised by their lawyers.
I reviewed the Monnaie production for Bachtrack (French edition). Read all about it on the site
Good for her. There are so many idiot/inept producers and directors around today.
I think I cited this on Slipped Disc a few years back in response to a similar issue, but it bears repeating apropos this story.
From conductor Antal Doráti‘s memoir “Notes of Seven Decades”, regarding the rise of the phenomenon of the “director’s opera”:
>> …it has led to other excesses, principal of which was the restless search for novel dramatic interpretation. This all too often deprives our present-day productions of the sense and meaning intended by the composer, and leaves [the director] open to the suspicion of being insufficiently prepared, insufficiently familiar with the material with which he is working, and — most important of all — insufficiently sensitive to the one essential component of music drama, namely, the music. Artificial originality smells worse than stinking fish.
As conductor autobiographies go, Dorati’s is one of the best. He also doesn’t mince words about why most ballet productions are boring musically.
Well worth searching out.
Mme. Kurzak is completely right. I’m all for outrageous productions if they enhance the deep understanding of a work or show its universality (Neuenfels’ Forza or Dew’s Huguenots in Berlin in the 80’s for example), but obscenity to denegrate the memory of a genius through exposure of his idea of an imagined inner sphere does in no way serve Puccini, whose world was indeed quite a different one from Pasolini ‘s anyway.
I know if I want to be bored to death one day, I’ll commission “guest” above to produce Tosca.
It’ll be all tiara and red velvet. *snicker*
Gee Robertino we thought La Dracula was bad.
However there is a difference between temperamental and being a BEEOTCH !
Comments like that aren’t going to gain her fans , or you …
Good for Aleksandra!
The director of the Liceu opera house has made a mess of the whole affair. What a comms disaster!
Kurzak and Alagna have done themselves no favours either with their unwarranted rudeness in the media. Their agents, lawyers and comms team have failed them as badly as Garcia de Gomar has failed the Liceu, if not worse.
I am distraught watching them debase themselves in the media and on social media. To think what they have become, it is so sad. Have they no friends who could have kept them from doing themselves so much harm?
We are not being told the full story and we do not have the information we need to arrive at conclusions.
When did the Liceo inform the singers of the production they were going to sing in?
Why did the Liceo offer to scrap the new production? Did it consult the other stars? What was the financial cost of scrapping the new production?
When was Roberto Alagna’s mafia musical postponed until January 2023? What is the exact rehearsal calendar? Did it coincide with Tosca rehearsals or performances?
Does Kurzak really have the right voice or temperament for Tosca?
Why are they offended by such a production when it is not really at all scandalous, just a bit boring really?
Is Kurzak so bothered by seeing a few little willies? Or is Alagna worried she will start comparing?
… or Penelope is here to bash on Kurzak. Amusing how you begin with ‘we don’t have enough information to arrive at conclusions’ , and continue with your own conclusions thinly disguised as rhetoric questions. Next time when you feel like pretending you are impartial, Penelope, remember to mix a few questions pointing in the other direction in your prose, and don’t conclude with a particularly dirty parting shot. My compliments to Antares, he and his ‘friends’ have long dropped any pretension their concern here is about opera. It’s about cheap shots and dirty one-liners. Why am I not surprised? It’s always like this with proponents of regietheater. Something of the dirtiness and shallowness of the movement must rub off on their devoted supporters. Why the lot of your believe that vulgar ad hominem directed at singers’ private life, endears you to the readers of this site totally beats me. Criticize a singer for his or her singing, if you must (and know anything about operatic singing, which I doubt), but ad hominem is contemptible.
Good for them. The President of the LA Opera Association brought a production here to Los Angeles of a Bohème that he had admired in London: in the Christmas Eve scene, Café Momus was set next to a Vespasien where actresses portraying prostitutes were shown fellating customers, and members of the children’s chorus looked like menacing zombies. LA Times critic Mark Swed pronounced it bold and daring and hoped it portended similar similarly transgressive productions of other classic pieces. I found it deeply offensive, and have since cancelled my season subscription–8th row center, mind you–a subscription I have held for 30 years. Better to stay home and listen to a good recording, or watch a good opera video on YouTube.
I sure dislike that she had to slight pasolini in refusal. I wonder what Maria Callas would think.